Racor lookalikes

[dhays]

If you believe Tony Athens, you are NEVER supposed to prefill the filter.

I bought a "Rapid Primer" from dieselfiltersonline.com before my last Racor change. It worked quite well. I found it worked quite well. Yeah, it is too expensive, but it does the job in a nice low-tech way. I don't like keeping containers of diesel full on the boat, so this is an easy way to fill the filter without having to keep diesel bottles on board.

 

[mvweebles]

Some interesting takeaways from the SBMAR (Tony Athens) article

First. It's a very old article - probably 20+ years old as it references the "new" Tier 2 requirements. Nothing wrong with that, just surprised at its age.

Second, he has no beef with Racor, just doesn't see the benefit of a clear bowl and believes the flow rate on Racors is greatly surpassed by Fleetguard. This is especially important to high horsepower engines in commercial use burning many thousands of gallons per year that tend to obscure a clear bowl.

Third, he's a huge proponent of sequential / staged filtration. For example, 30-micron, then 10-micron, then 2-micron.

Finally, a follow-on to staged filtration (#3 previous), he's not keen on just running 2-micron without bulk filtration ahead of it. Risk of clogging prematurely, which makes sense.

Personally, I like the visible bowl of a Racor. Works fine for my application where I don't burn much fuel even when cruising.

Peter

 

[psneeld]

I guess I thought the Lehman 120 was easy to bleed because in about 1 second after my first filter change.... I decided the stock primary filters on a Leman were an engineering nightmare in several ways and to replace them with a simple modern spin on.

So for the next 8 years and thankfully during my snowbirding, bleeding the fuel system was never an issue or even a concern.

So I had forgotten about the "original" setup....sorry.

 

[mvweebles]

I bought a "Rapid Primer" from dieselfiltersonline.com before my last Racor change. It worked quite well. I found it worked quite well. Yeah, it is too expensive, but it does the job in a nice low-tech way. I don't like keeping containers of diesel full on the boat, so this is an easy way to fill the filter without having to keep diesel bottles on board.
View attachment 159506

Question - did you consider adding a small Walbro fuel pump tee-d (with bypass for normal operation) into the diesel supply line? Bleeding any part of the system is easy and fast even on my ancient Perkins. As a side benefit, if filters do clog, using a bit of pump pressure will buy a bit of time.

Thoughts?

Peter

 

[ranger58sb]

Second, he has no beef with Racor, just doesn't see the benefit of a clear bowl and believes the flow rate on Racors is greatly surpassed by Fleetguard. This is especially important to high horsepower engines in commercial use burning many thousands of gallons per year that tend to obscure a clear bowl.

I'm kinda surprised Tony suggests filter changes with the Fleetguards would be less messy than with Racors.

Granted we've changed the drains on our primary Racors to the brass valve...

But even so, draining a Racor with spin-off drain plug looks no different than draining a Fleetguard with spin-off drain plug.

-Chris

 

[DDW]

Dhays - with your QSB, you should be able to fill the filter just by using the lift pump. When you turn the key on, it runs the pump for 1 minute. You may have to cycle the key switch off and on again a couple of times, but it will purge the air.

I find the Fleetguard changes a lot messier than the Racor. Having staged filtration isn't magic, just spreads out the detritus between several filters, perhaps delaying a shutdown due to a dirty tank.

OC Diver - was the bad load of diesel you got from a usually reliable source? or some dodgy backwater or foreign port? For awhile I'd filter the incoming fuel using a filter funnel. But I never saw anything in it, so I don't unless the source looks questionable.

 

[SteveK]

From Parker website

Parker is a global company, with manufacturing locations around the world producing genuine Racor replacement filters. The majority of our filters are designed, tested and manufactured in the USA.

From Made in China website

Sourcing Guide for Racor Fuel Filter:​

If China is making filters for Parker, then they already have the specs to make a copy. So is it really a knockoff.